Jenson Button confessed himself disappointed not to be higher up the grid after qualifying fifth for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The McLaren had proved quick leading up to the final qualifying session but a light rain shower in sector one cost Button on his final run.

"Our car feels good, and I think our pace has been good all weekend," said Button. "I just wish I could be a bit further up. We ran used tyres at the start of Q3 and used tyres at the end, and two of the cars ahead of me put their best times in at the start of the session when it was dry. For my final run, there'd been a bit of rain in sector one, so I lost about three and a half tenth to my previous best Q3 lap in the first sector. I was down quite a bit but was able to pull it back in the middle and last sectors, which were quite competitive. I'm reasonably happy, but would have liked to have been a bit higher up.

"In qualifying, you obviously want to push the car to the limit, but it's very tricky with this asphalt to see which parts of the surface are wet or dry. And, when you're pushing as hard as you can, it's very difficult to find the limit of the tyre in the wet. If you hit a wet patch, you're off."

Despite his slight sense of disappointment, Button knows that he is still in with a very realistic chance of a podium on Sunday, especially given the unpredictability of the weather at Spa.

"Still, I'm fifth - on the good side of the grid - and in this sort of weather, anything can happen, so it's pretty exciting. That's the way it is, but I still think we can have a very good race with our car tomorrow."